A dual biography of Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball focuses on the star-crossed marriage that sired one of the most powerful production empires in television history but ended in disintegration.

This comprehensive title is among the first to extensively use newly released 2010 U.S. Census data to examine multiculturalism today and tomorrow in America. This distinction is important considering the following NPR report by Eyder Peralta: “Based on the first national numbers released by the Census Bureau, the AP reports that minorities account for 90 percent of the total U.S. growth since 2000, due to immigration and higher birth rates for Latinos.” According to John Logan, a Brown University sociologist who has analyzed most of the census figures, “The futures of most metropolitan areas in the country are contingent on how attractive they are to Hispanic and Asian populations.” Both non-Hispanic whites and blacks are getting older as a group. “These groups are tending to fade out,” he added. Another demographer, William H. Frey with the Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post that this has been a pivotal decade. “We’re pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural.” Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia explores this pivotal moment and its ramifications with more than 900 signed entries not just providing a compilation of specific ethnic groups and their histories but also covering the full spectrum of issues flowing from the increasingly multicultural canvas that is America today. Pedagogical elements include an introduction, a thematic reader’s guide, a chronology of multicultural milestones, a glossary, a resource guide to key books, journals, and Internet sites, and an appendix of 2010 U.S. Census Data. Finally, the electronic version will be the only reference work on this topic to augment written entries with multimedia for today’s students, with 100 videos (with transcripts) from Getty Images and Video Vault, the Agence France Press, and Sky News, as reviewed by the media librarian of the Rutgers University Libraries, working in concert with the title’s editors.

Praise for the updated 2012 Kindle edition of Lucy A to Z: The Lucille Ball Encyclopedia "Very important. Fresh insights. The most detailed-and most enjoyable-book available on Lucille Ball. A must-have." -Laura Wagner, Classic Images "As we are producing the I Love Lucy 50th Anniversary Special, [Lucy A to Z] has been a godsend." -Lucie Arnaz, 2001 letter to author "[Lucy A to Z is a] compound of insight, fact, and trivia." -Stefan Kanfer, author, Ball of Fire "This new Fourth Edition of Lucy A to Z is a wonderful read and I'm very pleased to recommend it to everyone." -Wanda Clark, Lucille Ball's personal secretary "If you need any 'splainin' about Lucy' life and career, you'll find it here!" -Craig Hamrick, author, The TV Tidbits Classic Television Trivia Quiz Book

An analysis of I Love Lucy, one of the best loved sitcoms in the history of American television. I Love Lucy aired for six seasons between 1951 and 1957 as a top-rated weekly sitcom, and its characters appeared in thirteen hour-long specials between 1958 and 1960. In I Love Lucy, author Lori Landay investigates the groundbreaking series and its highly charismatic stars, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, to consider the program's impact on the conventions of the sitcom, television culture, and wider postwar culture. In chapters that proceed chronologically through the life of the series, Landay takes an interdisciplinary cultural studies approach to understanding the wider phenomenon of I Love Lucy, with an emphasis on a variety of issues as they arise from different phases of the show. She examines the program's efficient production system, compelling narrative formula, hilarious writing, and the technical genius behind the scenes that put it onto film. Landay also considers the show's clever plots within a familiar situation, magnificent comic performance, and the remarkable chemistry of its actors. In addition, she studies the end of the series and its continued place in popular culture. I Love Lucy is perhaps the most popular television show of all time, and its stars are some of the most recognizable in television history. For scholars of American television history as well as the series' many fans, I Love Lucy will be an enjoyable and informative read.